Book III: The Lion Grown Old
A lion, mourning, in his age, the waneOf might once dreaded through his wild domain,Was mock'd, at last, upon his throne,By subjects of his own,Strong through his weakness grown.The horse his head saluted with a kick;The wolf snapp'd at his royal hide;The ox, too, gored him in the side;The unhappy lion, sad and sick,Could hardly growl, he was so weak.In uncomplaining, stoic pride,He waited for the hour of fate,Until the ass approach'd his gate;Whereat, 'This is too much,' he saith;'I willingly would yield my breath;But, ah! thy kick is double death!'
Words in this poem
- whereat adv.
- At which; upon which; whereupon; -- used relatively.
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- willingly adv.
- In a willing manner; with free will; without reluctance; cheerfully.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book III: The Lion Grown Old is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Fables of La Fontaine, Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, the Elizur Wright translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jean de La Fontaine, Book III: The Lion Grown Old, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/3-14.html, id L28266.
Form and metre
Book III: The Lion Grown Old is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBBCDDC-DEEFFF waneA · domainA · throneB · ownB · grownB · kickC · hideD · sideD · sickC · weak · prideD · fateE · gateE · saithF · breathF · deathF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A lion, mourning, in his age, the wane | 9 | ·//˘····· |
| Of might once dreaded through his wild domain, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Was mock'd, at last, upon his throne, | 8 | ········ |
| By subjects of his own, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Strong through his weakness grown. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The horse his head saluted with a kick; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The wolf snapp'd at his royal hide; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The ox, too, gored him in the side; | 8 | ········ |
| The unhappy lion, sad and sick, | 8 | ·˘/˘/··· |
| Could hardly growl, he was so weak. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In uncomplaining, stoic pride, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He waited for the hour of fate, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Until the ass approach'd his gate; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Whereat, 'This is too much,' he saith; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| 'I willingly would yield my breath; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| But, ah! thy kick is double death!' | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.